How Do You React When Someone Puts Her Foot In Her Mouth Regarding Your Weight?

Here's how I know I'm making progress with my body image: When my coworker made a comment (she's a friend, and I know she didn't mean for it to come out this way, but it did) about my weight earlier, it didn't really shake me up. Yes, I walked away, stunned, but I didn't let it have the impact things like this used to have on me. In high school—I'm not kidding—I threw my shoe at the wall when my mom's friend told me I was gaining weight. I'd HAD it with the judgment from Greek relatives and pseudo-relatives, so I threw the shoe and then I ran to my room and cried! More times than I can count, however, my response was less of a temper tantrum and more depressed, hiding out in my room or my apartment with a plate of food to tune out the world.

Anyway, here's the situation:

My mom—who makes the best baklava ever (a traditional Greek pastry with layers of phyllo dough, nuts, spices and drenched in syrup)—made a tray of it for someone I work with for her birthday; it was a special request. My very sweet coworkers kept telling me they'd never tasted anything so delicious, and one said: "If I grew up with a mother who baked like that, I'd weigh 500 pounds."

Then a coworker/friend chimed in—before I had the chance—to say, "Yeah, well... that's why Margarita..."

And then she started back-peddling, realizing what had just started to come out of her mouth—that part of the reason I had a weight problem was because my mom's cooking was so good. (For the record, I don't think that's why I had a weight problem!) And I know she didn't mean to hurt my feelings; we are friends. She was apologetic, said it came out the wrong way and that I look great now, etcetera, etcetera. Honestly, I felt bad for her, because I know what it's like to speak without thinking and pray to God you hadn't just said that out loud. (Haven't we all been there?) Still, no one really knew what to say, including me. What I did know in that moment is that the stigma of being overweight doesn't melt away as quickly as the pounds. And—even more importantly—it gave me a chance to know that when your own self-worth if fiercely in tact (I have a long way to go still, but I've come SO far), it doesn't matter what other people say or think about you. I'm proud of how hard I've worked to change my life and my body, and no one and no flip comment can take that away from me. It felt really good to be able to walk away from this incident and not carry it with me, and not let it mean that I am unattractive or not-good-enough or any other adjective I could pull from the Self-Loathing Dictionary.

__Have any of you been in a similar situation? Has a friend or coworker ever put her foot in her mouth regarding your weight? How did you react?